Jack "The Reaper"
Backstory Jack grew up in a small poor family, but as early as his twelth year disease took his family from him. With the landlord obviously not interested in an occupant which would not pay, threw him on the street. With little more than the clothes on his back he wandered the streets. Took the little food he could get his hands on, legal or otherwise, sleeping wherever the slightest comfort could be found. A hectic life to be sure, with the harsh realities of the cold, and sometimes going hungry for a week, he slowly acclimated to it, and he quickly learned the best spots to stay as well as the easiest stalls to grab a quick dinner from. Although he attempted his best to mind his own business, the local gangs took notice of the deft and fast little kid, and sought out to catch him. Noone would miss a lonely orphan. Not approaching him particularily friendly, Jack was spooked and ran, taking every shortcut he could to get away, even over rooftoops if need be. Curious of his pursuers he started shadowing them, trying to find out why he was of interest to them, and during this he saw them blackmailing, beating people up, but the day when he saw them murder a man in an alley, in his surprise he slipped from his hiding spot. Barely getting out of their unscathed he noticed that the gang in particular started pursuing him more and more often, him only getting out of sticky situations with bruises and cuts. He grew to hate these men, and one day he was cornered, standing at a stall selling farming supplies, he picked up a scythe and channeling a rage at his pursuers he slew one, the rest running, as the young man suddenly had teeth to bite back with. This did not stop the pursuit of him, but it did put a bit of a halt to it, and with his newfound friend he knew of a way to deal with the gangs. Occasionally he would still be pursued, but everytime he left the men chasing him in a pool of their own blood, with the people pursuing him becoming ever more adept at finding him, and showing up in larger and larger numbers, he got used to the fighting, adopting an on the move fighting style and became a fierce opponent. Stories from his Life The Alley It was a rather bright night, the stars keeping a dim light over the city as well as the remnants of the passing sun still castings its final rays. Jack had decided to go for a stroll that night. It was beautiful, the streets empty and little could be heard except the small critters of the city scurrying around for their next meal. That thought put a smile on his face, it wasn't that different from what he does every day. Even if the lure of the beautiful night was strong, he had a bit of a plan with his stroll. This morning he saw an old man being harassed by a rather large group, and he tracked them down to this part of the city. He jumped from one rooftop along to the next, nearing every closer to his goal. There it was, a small innocuous wooden door, seemingly blending in with any other door on the street. But he knew what was behind it. Thiefs, murderers, thugs, rapists... Scum that did not deserve to breathe the air of this magnificient city. He couldn't do much for the old man, seeing as the men had already taken his money and any valuable possessions, but he liked the old man, and cared little to see him suffer. He slid down a pipe down to the ground as he drew down his hood over his face and knocked on the door. A man came to the door to open it, and asked with an aggressive tone in his voice: "Are you the guy?". Jack merely took a step closer whispering to him, "Yes... but not the one you invited" as he took out a sickle and slit the mans throat. He went in, and looked around, the home was remarkebly empty, just a few weapons stashed along a few weapons, but he couldn't find a single sign of any personal items, the old mans or otherwise. Not able to fulfil his intentions he slid out the door as he almost ran directly into a hooded man. A little larger, than himself, but the same colour of hood. No wonder the man had thought he was someone else. "I'm here with..." said the man with a raspy voice, trailing off as his eyes caught the dead man at Jack's feet. Not intent on leaving more corpses for the rats tonight Jack took the mans moment of confusion and shoved him aside and ran into the night, The Market It was a cold fall day, Jack was feeling rather hungry as he was casually walking down the street, and he decided to take a stroll to the market. The wind was biting into his bones, through his robe, even though he was in a good mood. The city had been fun to explore once more, and those pesky gangs hadn't been chasing him all week. Everything was good. The City market, open stalls, the best way to get a quick dinner, he thought to himself as he grabbed an apple from a stall, while noone was looking. He looked back at the stall making sure the owner did not notice, as he bumped into something. Before he had a chance to turn around he heard a deep voice: "Hey, Reaper. You going anywhere?" He slowly turned the head and saw a towering man in front of him, obviously armed, and severely tense. "Yeah, would you mind stepping aside?" He looked around him, more people were obviously moving through the crowds to get here. "The boss wants a talk with you, you been dropping a bit to many of his crew." the towering man said, as he burst into a deep laughter, "If it was up to me, I'd crumple you up right here." Jack started reaching out for his scythe, but noticed all the people around him. Not a good place to fight, he thought to himself. "Well what about giving it a shot, fat ass." Jack snarked at the man, as the man was realising what Jack had said, Jack leaped through the mans legs and started running, and he heard an arrow being shot from behind, and he started leaning towards the left, but then he heard crying. In front of him was a little kid, and without as much as a moments notice he reacted. He stopped leaning and braced himself: "Why do I do this?" he thought to himself as he felt the metal tip piercing deep into his shoulder. Most of the marketplace was cleared out at this point. Some scared screams from the few remainding occupants was heard, while they were obviously attempting to leave. Jack gathered his senses, breathing deeply, trying to ignore the arrow stuck in his flesh. He looked around trying to get a bearing on the situation. At least ten men, including the towering man was closing in on him, flanking him from all sides. He heard a scream again, and immediately turned to it, seeing a man holding the child. "So you would take an arrow for this litt..." was all the man had time to say as Jack immediately jumped at him, his scythe drawn, and with a delicate finesse he severed the mans arm from his shoulder, dropping the limb along with the child to the ground. He picked up the kid and with a smile he told the screaming kid: "Don't worry, let's get you somewhere safe." He looked around and saw a small alley, and a balcony. There was a couple of boxes stacked in front of it: "And I think I know just where to place you." He heard more arrows being flung in his direction and deftly avoided them as he ran towards the alley, and leaped up on the crates in a few steps and, and with a final jump he was on the balcony. He put the kid down and pointed to the door and said: "Run". The kid nodded and immediately ran. Jack jumped down to the alley and was about to run further down it, as he noticed it was blind. From behind he heard several laughters. He merely smiled and with a slow but determined move he turned to the men. With a predatory smile he stared them down as he said confidently: "What are you laughing at?" He readied his scythe, and as the first man took another step towards him, he charged.